Oranges (citrus sinensis) are the fruit of a smallish flowering tree and are known as hesperidia, a type of berry. Oranges are one of the most popular fruits in the world. The sweet orange began as a sour fruit and must have grown wild in China thousands of years ago and then cultivated by the Chinese by 2500 BC – possibly also in the Assam area of India as well as in Myanmar. For thousands of years oranges were an Oriental treat and no records of the fruit existed in the Middle East or in Greece. The oranges that reached the west at first were of the sour kind. Eventually the Romans, always in the market for exotic

produce, got hold of the oranges the hard way—long sea voyages from India finally brought young trees into the Roman port of Ostia around the first century AD. After the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD,  the cultivation and importing of oranges died out for centuries.

ORANGE AND ROSEMARY CHICKEN

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 150ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 150ml homemade chicken stock
• 2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, or to taste
• 1 tsp light muscovado sugar
• knob of butter
• orange segments and fresh rosemary sprigs to garnish
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

• Place the chicken between pieces of cling wrap and flatten slightly by bashing with a pan, unwrap and season with salt and pepper.
• Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and fry the chicken for 5 minutes, turning halfway through.
• Pour the vinegar over the chicken, add the orange juice and stock and sprinkle with the rosemary.
• Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes on low heat until tender, spooning with the sauce frequently and turning chicken halfway through.
• Stir in the sugar, butter and rest of the vinegar, then sizzle for a few minutes until reduced and glossy.
• Put the chicken in a serving dish, spoon the sauce over and garnish with orange and rosemary.

At first the trees were probably planted in North Africa (around the first century AD) and the Moors and Muslims then brought the oranges with them to southern Spain when they began their invasion in the 8th or 9th century. By the 1200’s orange groves were a feature of an area extending from Seville to Granada, as well as regions of Portugal and at the same time the Saracens introduced orange growing to Sicily. In 1493 Christopher Columbus took either the seeds or the young trees of the orange, the lemon and the citron to the island of Hispaniola (in the Canaries) very soon several of the Caribbean islands were cultivating oranges – both sweet and sour. Seedlings reached Panama with the Spanish in 1516 and Mexico two years later. Because the native Americans living there (supposedly) were intrigued with the orange trees, they tended them with care. At about the same time the Portuguese were planting sweet oranges in their enormous South American colony of Brazil.

THE MOST IMPORTANT VARIETIES

Washington Navel is the most popular orange in the world. It originated, perhaps as a mutant in Bahia, Brazil, before 1820 and is large but with a thick, easily removed rind – it’s not very juicy but has a very good flavour. Because of the high limonene content it becomes bitter when pasteurized and can’t be processed. Today it is commercially grown in Brazil, California, Paraguay, Spain, South Africa, Australia and Japan.

Trovita is a non-navel seedling that was cultivated in 1914 at the Citrus Experiment Station in California but only released in 1935. It is milder in taste than the Washington navel and has very few seeds – plus it can be planted in regions where the Washington navel can’t grow.

Valencia or Valencia Late is the most important cultivar in California, Texas and South Africa and may have originated in China and only later taken to Europe by Portuguese or Spanish voyagers – it’s smaller than the Washington Navel, with a thinner, tighter rind and is much juicier and richer in flavour – it’s almost seedless except in Chile where the dry climate apparently allows better pollination and development of many more seeds.

ORANGE AND ROSEMARY ROASTED LAMB

Ingredients

• 1.25 kg lamb leg joint
• 1 orange, grated zest  and juice
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed from stalk, plus 1 tbsp, chopped
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp orange marmalade
• 150ml dry white wine

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Make several slits into the joint and combine, the orange zest, the garlic and the rosemary with the olive oil, stuff this mixture into the slits.
• Place the meat onto a rack on a roasting sheet and open roast in the oven for 1½-1¾ hours.
• Ten to fifteen  minutes before the end of the cooking time, glaze the joint with 2 tbsp orange marmalade.
• Make a gravy by mixing together the wine with the juice of the orange and the juices from the pan (drain off any fat first).
• Add 1 tbsp orange marmalade, 1 tbsp fresh rosemary and  bring to the boil and heat until thickened.
• Allow to rest for 10 minutes

Lue Gim Gong was claimed to be a hybrid of  the Valencia and the Mediterranean Sweet by a Chinese grower in 1886 and was awarded the Wilder Silver Medal by the American Pomological Society in 1911.

Rhode Red Valencia was discovered in 1955 in a grove near Sebring in Florida by Paul Rhode Sr. of Winter Haven. The fruit has more juice than the Valencia and  has less seeds and less vitamin C than many others but the colour is beautiful.

Campbell Valencia was developed in Cuba

Hamlin was discovered in 1879 near Glenwood in Florida in a grove later owned by A.G. Hamlin and is small, smooth, not highly coloured, seedless and juicy fruit but the juice is pale. The oranges are  of poor-to-medium quality but the tree is high-yielding and cold-tolerant.

Homosassa, a selected Florida seedling named in 1877, is of rich orange colour, of medium size and has excellent flavour. It was formerly one of the most valued midseason oranges in Florida but it’s too seedy to maintain that position. It is no longer planted except perhaps in Texas and Louisiana.

Shamouti (Jaffa) originated near Jaffa, Israel, in 1844. It’s an oval, medium-large orange, with a leathery, thick, easy to remove peel, very juicy pulp and all in all an excellent quality.

Parson Brown was discovered in a grove owned by Parson Brown in Wester, is rough-skinned, with pale juice, moderately seedy and of low-to-medium quality.

Pineapple is a seedling found in a grove near Citra, Florida. It was propagated in 1876  under the name of Hickory and is pineapple-scented, smooth, highly coloured, especially after cold spells; of rich, appealing flavor, and medium-seedy.

Queen is a seedling of unknown origin which was found in a grove near Bartow, Florida.

Blood Oranges are commonly cultivated in the Mediterranean area, especially in Italy, but also in Pakistan. The blood orange has streaks of red in the fruit and the juice is often a dark burgundy colour.

ORANGE JUICE

Orange juice is one of the commodities traded on the New York Board of Trade and Brazil is the largest producer of orange juice in the world, followed by the USA.  It is made by squeezing the fruit on a special instrument called a juice or a squeezer – the juice is collected in a small tray underneath – this is usually the way in which it is squeezed at home but in the industry it’s done on a much larger scale.

TEQUILA SUNRISE

The Tequila sunrise, made for the first time at the Arizona Biltmore, is made using orange juice nowadays but was, originally, made with tequila, crème de cassis, soda water and lime juice. Today the drink is made with tequila, orange juice and grenadine syrup. The drink was named for a sunrise because the denser ingredient (the grenadine) creates gradations in the colour that resembles a sunrise.

Ingredients

• 12o ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• 60 ml Tequila blanco
• 90 ml grenadine
• splash fresh lime juice (if you don’t have fresh, omit)

Method

• Combine the tequila, the orange juice and the lime (if you are going to use it) in a cocktail shaker.
• Shake and strain into a glass filled with crushed ice.
• Finally pour the grenadine into the glass – it will sink to the bottom naturally.

MARMALADE AND WHISKY BREAD PUDDING

Ingredients

• 6 slices white bread, medium sliced, buttered, crusts removed, cut diagonally into quarters
• 140g medium shred marmalade
• 70 g  sultanas
• 500 ml  double cream
• 2 extra large eggs
• 100g caster sugar
• 15 g toasted oats
• 20 g flaked toasted almonds
• 1 tbsp honey
• Whisky to taste

Method

• Preheat the oven to 190 C.
• Place 110g of the marmalade in the base of four individual ovenproof dishes and sprinkle half of the sultanas over the top.
• Put about 300 ml of the cream into a small pot and heat until just boiling.
• Put the eggs and about 80 g of the sugar into a separate bowl and whisk together until light and pour the boiling cream on to the mixture – whisk.
• Pour half the mixture onto the marmalade, the almonds and the sultanas and reserve the rest.
• Layer the bread on top and sprinkle on the rest of the sultanas.
• Pour on the remaining cream mixture and put the dishes onto an oven tray and place in the oven for about 20 minutes.
• Make the sauce by whisking the remaining sugar and cream in a mixing bowl, adding the honey and a dash of whisky to taste and then the oats – whisk again.
• Spoon the mixture into small round dishes and place in the fridge until you are ready to serve the pudding.
• Put the rest of the marmalade in to a pot and microwave on full for approximately 20 seconds, until melted.
• Brush the melted marmalade on top of the bread and butter puddings as soon as they are taken out of the oven.
• Serve with the sauce.